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ICBM

On August 21, 1957, the Soviet Union carried out the first successful test launch of their prototype intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the R-7. The two-stage, 112-foot-long, oxygen- and kerosene-fueled rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and carried a dummy warhead 3500 miles. The Soviets described the R-7 as a “super long-distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket.” It was the “super long-distance” part that alarmed the United States, and the world at large, during the Cold War era of the 1950s. Russian R-7 ICBMs were intended ultimately to be “tipped” with nuclear devices – weapons – capable of delivering the equivalent of almost 3 megatons of TNT.

At this time, the United States’ ICBM program was producing nothing but “spectacular failures.” Initially, each branch of the armed services worked independently and in competition with one another to develop an American ICBM. The success of the R-7, a version of which was used in October to launch the Sputnik satellite, redoubled the efforts of American scientists and military to win the Race to Space and prevent the spread of International Communism. In the late fifties, the Atlas program began to make significant progress toward parity with the Russians. In July of 1959, the first fully-operational Atlas ICBM lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

On August 8, 1957, the Re-Entry Test Vehicle Project of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency achieved a successful atmospheric re-entry of its Orbiter stack. The International Geophysical Year, declared on July 1, 1957, included a competition for the first successful satellite launch in its Race to Space agenda. American scientists hoped to work collaboratively with the U.S. military to develop new technology for rockets with space exploration and research benefits, as well as military and strategic roles. The challenge facing rocket development programs included not only how to design engines capable of freeing a large, heavy object from the clutches of earth’s gravity, but also how to enable a portion of that heavy object to return to earth without burning up as it passed back through our atmosphere.

The Army’s Re-Entry Test Vehicle Project, started in 1955, progressed in stages. The Army Ballistic Missile program’s overall goal: develop an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of accurately delivering a nuclear warhead, with all necessary tracking and control systems technology. From the start, researchers knew that nuclear warheads would need to be protected from the intense heat generated while re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. Theoretical studies and laboratory tests pointed to the use of glass-fiber-based materials for use in warhead shields. The glass-fiber shields – also referred to as “ablative technology” – would protect the payloads by gradually burning away during re-entry. The re-entry project designed rocket telemetry (tracking) systems, a nose cone assembly to hold the glass shields which would float on water, enabling recovery and analysis, and the ablative technology. The Orbiter stack, or rocket, had already been developed as part of the Redstone and Sergeant missile programs and consisted of four stages of rocket motors and boosters.

The first test flight , held September 20, 1956, demonstrated that the vehicle design and tracking systems were fully functional. The second flight, May 15, 1957, was the first to include the ablative technology. The tracking information indicated to the researchers that the heat shields had worked, but because of a guidance system failure, they were unable to recover the nose cone post-splashdown for confirmation. They needed to know how much of the glass material had eroded, in order to make an efficient warhead design.

The final test, on August 8, 1957, was the success they were hoping for. The rescue and salvage ship USS Escape recovered the nose cone and analysis of the heat shield showed that only a small amount of material had burned away, confirming an effective design. The United States was one step closer to an arsenal of nuclear ICBMs to train on the USSR.

On November 3, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched their second Sputnik earth satellite from an ICBM R-7 platform. The 13 foot high, 2 foot diameter capsule contained compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, regeneration and temperature control systems, scientific instruments (including photometers to measure ultraviolet and x-ray solar radiation), and in her own separate padded and pressurized cabin, a part-terrier, part-Samoyed female dog named Laika. Other than hitchhiker microbes, no living animal had ever blasted off into space before little 13-pound Laika (which meant “Barker” in Russian) went up, fitted with a harness, electrodes to monitor her condition, and supplies of oxygen, food, and water.

With Sputnik 1 still orbiting Earth, transmitting radio signals and ICBM nightmares across the globe, Sputnik 2’s successful launch introduced an even greater level of perceived alarm and threat by Cold War antagonists to the USSR’s new space supremacy. Sputnik 2 did not carry out its mission entirely as planned, however. While the satellite-bearing rocket achieved earth orbit, where it successfully jettisoned its nose cone, a portion of the rocket called “Blok A” did not separate, inhibiting the thermal control system. Vital thermal insulation was torn loose during the nose cone separation as well, and Sputnik’s internal temperatures soon reached 104°F.

Sputnik 2’s fate to burn up in earth atmosphere reentry occurred on April 14, 1958, after 162 days of circling the globe. The original plan for Laika – painful for all animal-lovers everywhere to contemplate – was for her to provide information for a limited period of time on the effects of space flight on living beings, through monitoring her vital signs. After ten days, she was to be euthanized by lethal medication-supplemented food. Once sent into orbit, she could never return. But after the early loss of her capsule’s thermal insulation, Laika was only able to survive for a few hours before succumbing to the heat and stress. Her death was a small, but significant tragedy on the road to man’s Race to Space.

A Rocky Mount High School student looks over an edition of the Evening Telegram during a 1952 tour of the newspaper’s original office on Howard Street. Photo: Rocky Mount Telegram archives

On October 25, 1957, the Friday night edition of the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram reported the news from far and near to the residents of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Published from 1894 until 1966, the Evening Telegram served a community first founded in 1816 and the home, in 1957, of about 28,000 people.

And what would those Rocky Mount residents have seen on the front page when they snapped open the evening news at the start of their weekend? Here are two of the headlines:

Reds Launching Could Be Fake

REDLANDS, Calif. (AP)-Russia’s launching of Sputnik may have been a “fake stunt,” says a physicist participating in the U.S. Far Side Project.

Sputnik may have been launched from a balloon–as the Far Side rocket was–instead of using an intercontinental ballistic missile, said Charles E. Bartley.

“As propaganda, the Russian launching is undeniably superb,” Bartley told a group of University of Redlands scientists. “By innuendo, it supports Soviet claims to an intercontinental ballistic missile.

“But objective analysis raises several questions. Sputnik could easily have been launched from a balloon. This would have been possible without employing a large rocket of ICBM magnitude.

He quoted a Russian scientist, Mrs. Anna T. Masevich, vice president of the Soviet Astronautical Council, as saying in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 4:

“Newspapers were wrong when they said the satellite weighed 184.3 pounds. I think it is not so heavy.”

Commented Bartley: “Common sense and logic sum up two reasonable suppositions. The Soviet Sputnik more likely weighs 18 pounds and it does not make sense that the Russians would expend a large ICBM rocket, even if they had it, to put that weight into an orbit when a light cluster of efficient small rockets could do the same job from a balloon.”

Bartley is the president of Grand Central Rocket Co., which makes third and fourth stage motors for Far Side rockets.

Not Socialized

ASHEVILLE, NC (AP)-Dr. True B. Eveleth of Chicago, executive secretary of the American Osteopathic Assn., has told the North Carolina Osteopathic Society that socialized medicine will never be imposed in the United States.

And at the bottom of the page, the following some-things-never-change item:

DETROIT (AP)-Mrs. Edith Hall told police a thief took $5 from her purse which she had left on the porch of her home while she raked leaves. He threw away the purse, overlooking $2,170 hidden in a secret compartment.

On October 23, 1957, the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Vanguard program successfully tested a three-stage rocket designed to send an American Earth satellite into orbit. The recent launch of the Soviet Union’s rocket bearing the first Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, created a sense of urgency for the U.S. to catch up with their Cold War nemesis, and the original timetable for American satellite deployment was put on a fast track.

In 1955, the United States government announced plans to create and successfully place an Earth satellite into orbit during the International Geophysical Year, running from July, 1957 through December of 1958. Consequently, three branches of the armed services – the Army, Air Force, and Navy – all independently pursued their own rocket-development programs. The Army’s Redstone project and the Air Force’s Atlas ballistic missiles were military in nature and of a top priority. The NRL was always viewed more as a scientific organization and Vanguard was emphasized as a non-military project.

Two NRL program launches took place before October 23rd’s blast-off. TV-0, launched December 8, 1956, tested telemetry systems, and TV-1 on May 1, 1957, tested the separation and subsequent second-stage ignition capabilities of the two-stage rocket design. Several abortive attempts occurred over the summer of 1957, before TV-2 was able to test the 75 feet tall, 3.74 foot diameter, 22,156 pound, three-stage version. TV-2 successfully demonstrated Vanguard’s ability for first-second stage separation and “spin-up” of the third stage. Stages 1 and 2 were steered by gimbaled engines. The third stage was “spin-stabilized, the spin being imparted by a turn-table on the second stage before separation”. The engines worked, the turn-table worked, the telemetry and separation systems worked, but American rockets were still incapable of packing a satellite aboard.

Fast-tracking the Vanguard project in response to the threat posed by Sputnik resulted in disappointments and set-backs before achieving its ultimate goal. Next test reservation date for Cape Canaveral’s LC-18A pad would be December 6th. The suspense was mounting.

On October 12, 1957, Mike Wallace opened his Interview television broadcast with the following dramatic words:

“Tonight we had planned to interview one of the great fighters of our time, Sugar Ray Robinson. But because of the alarming turn in world events this week, Sugar Ray has consented to a postponement of his interview so that tonight we can go after the story of the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union for control of outer space.”

Instead of a champion of the boxing ring, Mike hosted a champion of World War II’s war on Japan: retired Air Force General George Kenney, Commander of Allied Air Forces under General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific. MacArthur said about Kenney: “General Kenney has no superior as an air commander. His creative imagination and his brilliant leadership mark him as one of the unique figures in aviation.” Wallace also credited Kenney with “a reputation as a fearless military analyst”.

The alarming world event Wallace was referring to was the recent successful launch of the USSR satellite, Sputnik 1. Mike lost no time in getting right to the point with Kenney: How serious was the threat posed by Sputnik, and how should the United States – and the world – respond?

Kenney, his words and manner confirming him to be a principled man of demonstrated ability, succinctly and persuasively made the following points:

The successful launch of Sputnik 1 proves that the USSR has developed the rocket technology necessary to propel an ICBM into United States air space, posing a serious threat to the security of our nation.

America has been too complacent and apathetic about the Soviet ability to develop weapons and produce them in quantity.

The day the Soviet political and military staff decide they can win a nuclear war, they’ll pull the trigger. They follow the teaching of Marx and Lenin, which confirm this world mission. Khrushchev reiterates this point in every speech he makes.

A preventive first strike (Wallace repeatedly proposed this option) is not the answer. Like the sheriff of our western heritage, don’t shoot the bandit on first sight. Warn him he has so much time to get out of town, and if he doesn’t leave and reaches for his gun instead, beat him to the draw.

We are behind the Soviet Union in nuclear weapons development because the American public has not taken the threat seriously enough.

Kenney, while not eager to lay blame anywhere for the United States’ having fallen behind in the Cold War arms race, stressed that US leaders mostly followed the desires of the electorate, based on the average voter’s priorities. “If the people of this country really want defense they can have it,” he asserted. “All they’ve got to do it demand it. The feeling in Washington is that they wanted the budget balanced, want taxes reduced, they want bigger Social Security benefits, more pensions, better roads, and all kinds of things.”

Kenney went on to make insightful and cogent remarks on a variety of issues related to American military defense, the performance of key government and military officials, and recent scientific research. He shared his views on the stance the United Nations should take with member nations headed by dictatorships and explained why, in his opinion, the Russian government newspaper Isvestia had labeled him a “high ranking lunatic”.

General Kenney concluded the interview with a glimpse of his personal integrity. He explained why he chose not to work for defense contractors after his retirement from the Air Force – “they would expect me to be down in Washington to help them sell their stuff and I couldn’t do that if one of the competitors of the company that I was working for had a better missile or a better engine or a better airplane”. Kenney, instead, chose to spend part of his retirement contributing his time and talents to a cause he felt passionate about – the Arthritis Foundation.

On October 11, 1957, the enormous IBM 704 computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computation Center produced the first “satisfactory orbit” calculations for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Sputnik 1-spotting mission. Operation Moonwatch, a group of amateur astronomers organized by Observatory Director Fred Lawrence Whipple, was working feverishly in Cambridge, Massachusetts since Sputnik’s October 4th launch to develop the mathematical models to accurately calculate and predict where the first man-made Earth satellite would appear in the sky at any given time. If they could determine the position of Sputnik 1, they could derive its “orbital elements”, or “parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit” – scientist talk for “where exactly is the satellite now and where will be it be in five, ten, or fifteen minutes?”.

The IBM 704, introduced in 1954, was the first mass-produced computer with floating-point arithmetic hardware and core memory (instead of tubes). Computer languages FORTRAN and LISP were first developed for use with the 704. It was able to execute up to a speedy 40,000 instructions per second.

The astronomers had three targets to work with: the Sputnik 1 satellite with its radio transmitter; a detached nose cone from the satellite; and the satellite’s discarded booster rocket. Early in the morning of October 11th, at around 7:00 AM, the state-of-the-art IBM 704 was able to lock on and calculate the critical Earth-orbit data for the booster rocket.

Being able to accurately locate objects orbiting the Earth and passing over the United States was of great national security interest. The questions on everyone’s mind since the Soviet Union’s successful Sputnik 1 launch were: Would the Soviets send up an ICBM, now that they had the technology? And: How soon?